Feature: Nuclear Energizes Teachers
Posted on October 16th, 2011 by ASEE
Despite the anxiety triggered by last spring’s nuclear disaster in Japan, nuclear power is still a key part of this country’s energy mix. Industry and universities are enlisting help from teachers in preparing the next generation of nuclear engineers and technicians.
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Tags: Electrical, Electrical Engineering, Energy, Nuclear Engineering, Nuclear Science, Programs for Teachers, Teacher Training, Teacher Workshops, Teachers, Workshops
The NASA Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Project awards one-year fellowships each year to over 40 current and prospective teachers. Endeavor Fellows receive award-winning STEM Professional Development, taking graduate courses in an innovative, LIVE (online) format from the comfort of their home or school. 
The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) has put together a public/private partnership to develop ways of engaging elementary, middle, and high school students in engineering. Participants will learn about innovative, hands-on, project-based engineering at three events during National Science Teachers Association regional conferences.
Education reformers oversell the importance of highly skilled teachers and undervalue the benefits that come from teacher collaborations, according to a University of Pittsburgh specialist in organizations. An article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review says students “showed higher gains in math achievement when their teachers reported frequent conversations with their peers that centered on math, and when there was a feeling of trust or closeness among teachers.”
Attention, STEM majors. The nation needs more middle and high school science teachers — and there are several new initiatives to encourage you to sign up for training. Indiana’s Valparaiso University, for instance, just received a $500,000 federal grant to train science undergraduates as educators. The program will include paid summer internships and student-teaching stints. 
Join PBS’s Design Squad Nation and ASEE’s Engineering Go For It for a free webinar entitled “Inspiring the Next Generation of Engineers,” on August 25 from 12 PM to 1 PM EDT. Learn about free hands-on activities, videos, and other online resources that will help enliven your classes and spark a love of engineering in kids ages 9 and up.
Teacher layoffs nationwide threaten to make a bad STEM education situation worse, as more educators must cover subjects they are not certified to teach. A new survey by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that fewer than half the chemistry and physical science teachers in public high schools had degrees in those fields, with about 30 percent lacking certification in those subjects. 
Johns Hopkins University’s Engineering for Professionals (EP) program, part of the Whiting School of Engineering, will provide free tuition beginning with the summer term to Maryland public and private high school teachers who want to further their professional development in STEM disciplines.
Finland enjoys a surprising claim to fame: world-class K-12 education. Only a handful of nations come close to matching Finland in math, science, and literacy, and none boasts such uniformly high achievement rates across regions and income levels. How could the country produce 15-year-olds on par with Asia’s whiz kids? The answer may reside in teacher training and approach.
